Thursday, 6 November 2014

Power sector to see investment of $250 billion over the next four years: Piyush Goyal

The minister for Power, coal and new and renewable energy, Piyush Goyal, on Thursday said that the sector will see an investment of $250 billion dollars over the next four years with $100 billion in renewable energy and around $50 billion in transmission.

Recollecting the state of power in the country, Goyal said that even after 67 years almost one fourth of the population does not have access to electricity and the new government will endeavour to provide electricity to all over the next five years.

“I am hopeful that in 2019 when we go for the next general elections we have provided power to all houses, offices and other establishments,” said Goyal while speaking at the India Economic Summit organized by WEF and CII. He said that almost 53 million houses in the country still need to be electrified.

He said the new government is hopeful that fuel supply issue will be addressed over the next few years and the government has taken steps in that direction. He said that coal production will be doubled to 1 billion tonnes by 2019 and the revised gas pricing will result in increased development and discovery.

Stating that the new government has raised the target for solar power generation by 2022 from 20,000 MW to 100,000 MW, he said that Nuclear energy too had potential but it even has some problems. “We want to be sure that we are not saddled with something that has been discarded by the West. We have to be clear on what we are getting,” said Goyal.